InterGalactic Smog Check

Copyright (c) 2004 Greg Utrecht

I was on a reach toward L2 on the far side of the moon when a lunar cop droid pulled me over. "State your intentions"

"I'm heading out to L2 to test my gyros for a run out to Ganymede."

cop: "You're putting out in the 790 nanometer range, did you know that?

"Well, that's why I'm on this shakedown"

cop: "What do you have in there anyway"

"Its one of the new hybrids, an Oberth modified with a Kronecker phase switched dual beam."

cop: "dual beam!"

"yeah it runs rectified till I get out of traffic control, then it switches over to dual beam, I can do the Mars Jupiter in three breems."

cop: "three breems! Well, alright, just take it easy with that 790 nanometer, you dont want to scare some little kid 10,000 years from now if your beam starts a thunderstorm on his home planet"

"Yeah."

cop: "Well Im gonna have to write you up to get smog certified soon as you hit Moon control"

"allright, see you"

Damn, now customs is going to find out that I am out at L2. What if they start scanning for additional traffic. Drat!

The End

For technical background of this story, see Bernard Vonnegut's lightning references